Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1887-11-03
Presently a man engaged in the main


beam. He said it appeared like wreck
or raft. 1t could not be whale, he
thought, as it seemed too long for one.
mast" he said, with some sort OF q
signal on it, and then it is all fiat again
and hardly shows out of water"
The Captain went into the top with
his glass, but as lie brought the tele-
scope to bear. upon the spot, the object
disappeared. He caught glimpse of
it, however, suflicint to assure him that
it was some living creature, and that it
bore no resemblance to whale.
There was much speculation among
the crew as to what the animal could be.
The Captain said that it seemed to be
as long as the ship, and that as it went
down portion of it appeared to rise
above the water like a coil of an i'm
mense rope His view, however, had
been very hurried and imperfect.
We thought of the tales we had read
concerning sea serpents, and the most
of us believed in the existence of such
creatures, though it was our opinion
that the accounts given of them were
exaggerations.
That night sailor named Ben
Thomas thought he saw something
black on the water, as if boat were
approaching us. He called our atten-
tion to it, but the mate was the only
one beside himself who got sight of
it, though the rest of us heard and saw
q disturbance in the water at the place
where the thing had shown itself. Ben
said it looked like very long boat,
with tall man standing up in 1T. But
then in the darkness it had been barely
perceptible even to him.
The China Sea abounds in snakes,
and they were around us constantly,
either making their way through the
water or coiled up asleep on the sur
face They were all colors, too, but
their length was not more than five or
six feet.
We had rugged a temporary jib-
boom to replace the one lost in the hur-
I Den 5 incidenJ DIfi Dean we7iU 0oOon
spar to secure gasket, or small line,
which was dangling loose.
Before this could be accomplished he
suddenly changed his mind, and he
came in over the ships head like cat.
"l ook here, mates!" he cried, come
quick quick!"
, We ran forward and looked over the
head.
The slowly moving swell, hardly per-
ceptible, was smooth as oil, and be-
meath it, me re and more distinctly, as
/, looked, we made out an object that
A gave us O thrill of terror. 1t was some
monster of the deep, apparently huge
!, serpent, few feet under water, benz
u in the form of horseshoe, as if it hat
i Just come out from beneath the vesse
on one side of the bow and had curved
u its immense body for return on th'
Z other side.
We could at first see neither its heaC
. nor its tail, but only its middle, whor
u it seemed to be at least three feet II
n diameter. In half minute it was ou
p of sight, its tail coming up and cutting
/ the water as it vanished.
4 We felt Mortified at the thought tina
such monster might be directly unde
> our keel, either swimming about ther
le or living at rest. The faces of the cre'
II had a startled look, and more than on
i, face grew decidedly pale.
tn We feared that the calm might col
oil fine us to our position for number {
a days. When, therefore, an hour late
le there appeared indications OF a comm
breeze, the S gns were most hearth
"' welcomed.
:. Here and there could be seen "cat
- - paws" upon the water, and the burnir
~ sky began to show few light cloud
- Looking off toward the horizon,
Va ~. the direct on from which we had re
%: a' son to ext ect the wind, we present
p discovered what had the appearance
20 fleet of small vessels.
o' Again the Captain mounted to Il
'ie main top with his glass, and after
,rv minutes survey, he reported the sa
II in sight to be four Malay proas, appa
W. emily heading for us with a 60
M breeze
'h' Here were enemies more dangero
oil than serpents The case was one
GO life and death, for those fellows we
al al undoubtedly pirates, and no mercy W
or- eo- to be hoped from them should they
IT possession of the ship.
On they came very fast, while
,oo were still becalmed; but well we kn'
,oI ,od that even should the light bre'
'u5 'o9 reach us, it could do us no good,
'no nothing less than strong gale {
,o5 afford heavy ship any chance OF
,,"t ,a cape when chased by Malay proa.
Ho' Each of the four large boats
a. peared to contain about fifty men,
w that the aggregate was two hundr
while we mustered but twenty, all to
us us The breeze at length reached us,
't9o mo we bore away, but they gained on
seo rapidly.
As they came within fair range
opened upon them with dozen m
kets which we had on board, and &
Bill returned the fire, also with musk'
lths neither they nor ourselves having
Iati- cannon.
They were soon close under
Iav- stern, and it was evidently their int
ton to board us on both sides at
.one same time; for while two of the pr
lack seemed to be heading for our lee a
ter, the other two hauled very sh
lied on the wind in order to drop aboar'
are us on the side opposite.
The headmost proa was less thu
day hundred yards from us, and the fiji
n of on both sides had become very shi
ions when suddenly there was a swasl
10 in sound in the water just astern of
soup ship, and o long. nldeous heau,
ported by frightful serpentine NJ
It." shot up to a height of some TIVE
bled feet above the surface. 1t had eye
.tber large as saucers, and q mouth WI
would have put that of an alligato
Dick shame. Behind the neck lay the s.
tied body, and scaly it was, indeedl v
n .Do~, xooOIloot ~ oaama6